The Healing Touch Of God

One of the charisms which the Catholic Charismatic Renewal has restored to the Church is the healing ministry. Just as Jesus healed the sick in his own day as a sign of the breaking in of the kingdom of God into our broken world and a sign that one day there would be no more sick or suffering, so Jesus continues his work through the body of Christ and his presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Michael Davidson tells how he was healed through Jesus in the Blesssed Sacrament at his local prayer group in Basingstoke

I had a trapped sciatic nerve and was in agony. The waiting list for a hospital physiotherapist was 16 weeks and I couldn’t wait that long so I went to see an osteopath privately. His gentle manipulations helped a lot and I began to limp less, but the night time pains disturbed my sleep as much as ever. I still shrieked so loudly when I moved that I was afraid that I would wake the children.

Eventually after several weeks’ treatment I decided to ask for prayer for healing from the group at the convent where I attend on Friday evenings. Strange how we tend to delay turning to the Lord for the ministrations of his gifts, but instead rely solely on medical people! We knelt in the chapel before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. A couple of people laid hands on me and prayed for healing through the goodness and power of the Holy Spirit. That night I slept through the night for the first time since my back trouble had started!

When I told the osteopath about the prayer, he wasn’t surprised as he was a Christian too. “Most of the problems I see have spiritual and emotional elements and are not just physical,” he remarked. I didn’t mind how he explained it. All I knew was that I had got a lot better. I now had pins and needles in my foot, however. The osteopath explained that I had a damaged nerve and it would take many weeks, maybe months to mend properly.

Two days later, however, it was the regular special first Friday Mass in honour of the Sacred Heart, followed by prayer for healing in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Our priest Fr Joe, put the monstrance on the altar, we sang a few hymns, listened to a couple of meditations and had a time of silent adoration. Then we all queued up for a blessing, which Fr Joe gave by holding up a consecrated host in front of each person. As he did this, he said, “In this way the living Jesus is present “standing there” before your eyes.”

As he did this, I felt inspired to say inwardly, “My heart is Yours”. It reminded me of the last line of the carol, “In the bleak midwinter” when it says, “What can I give Him? Give my heart.” Well, in the Eucharist He gives us His heart, His Sacred Heart. So I gave Him mine.

Afterwards I realised I could feel my toes again, no pins and needles, no numbness, no pain, not the slightest discomfort. We have heard of other greater healings. But this was fantastic for me. I was healed suddenly, immediately, completely and permanently!

I realise that I was very privileged to receive this supernatural cure, but it did not happen because I am in anyway special. Healing and all kinds of blessings great and small for daily life are freely available to anyone, anywhere who turns to Jesus. He has promised it. His power is just the same here in Basingstoke as when He walked the roads of the Holy Land 2000 years ago, except today He is only visible through the sacraments and the power of the Holy Spirit working through each Christian.

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Angela Jordan tells how she was healed this year at the New Dawn Conference of a painful skin complaint, and received an inner healing too.

I went to the New Dawn Conference looking for answers from the Lord to practical difficulties I’d struggled with for two years. When I was prayed with, my cupped hands filled with tears. At the healing service, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed but I remember thinking that, unlike in previous years, I felt no joy. Suddenly the Lord gave me and three other people the gift of laughter and we laughed uncontrollably for about 20 minutes. Then the Lord told the priest leading the evening of healings that were taking place. These included a lady near me whose arthritis of the feet was healed. He also spoke of cancers, skin complaints and deafness.

I went happily to bed. My finger was bandaged up because of eczema which had been bleeding so badly that I was worried about getting blood on the sheets. I intended to change the dressing and cream it but I remembered that it had been one of the ailments the Lord had healed. I know that healing can take time to become visible and that you have to claim the Lord’s promises, so I told the Lord that I claimed the healing. I felt a bit selfish, thinking there must have been people there with worse skin complaints than one finger’s worth, but I reasoned that the Lord could heal them too. I left the dressing on because my finger was particularly sore that night.

In the middle of the night, I woke up giggling and staggered about from side to side as if I were on board ship. In the morning, when I removed the dressing, I saw that the two slits in my finger and the knuckle, which was split across, were full of dried blood. I thanked the Lord that it had stopped bleeding and left the dressing off. By the time I arrived at the conference an hour later, every trace of splits in the skin had gone. No scars, or white lines, nothing. I told the healing team and gave witness to the conference.

I was delighted that the eczema had gone because, through that, the Lord reassured me that He does care about my concerns and really can do anything, including sort out my impossible situation. Later, in the loo, I met the old lady who had arthritis in her feet. I asked her how her feet were. She said she wasn’t sure, but I noticed that, before, she had been bent right over, and now she was standing up straight. I told her and she looked in the mirror, astonished. “So I am. Ooh, my daughter will be pleased!”

Towards the end of the conference, the Lord led me to various people through whom He released me from the spiritual and emotional effects of my heavy burden. The practical problems remained but the spiritual chains that had bound me were broken and, in a prophecy given moments before I left, the Lord showed me the way forward.
Thanks be to God!

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Cath Lennon from Birmingham was healed of a severe chronic back condition at the London Day of Renewal at the Friends Meeting House in June this year. Below she tells her story.

My back went in 1996 and I was off work for several months. I have had a weakness with it ever since and as time went on it got worse and worse and I was taking more and more pain killers till I ended up on the maximum I could take a day. But nothing helped and I got stiffer and stiffer in my lower back. It got so bad that I couldn’t walk for more than 7 minutes without sitting down and my life was very restricted. I couldn’t stand for long periods, I found it hard to sit, and things like going shopping which I loved and other simple things, I couldn’t do.

Finally I went to see a consultant at the end of 2005 and he recommended an operation because he found I had a restriction on the spinal column and the nerve endings were bouncing off each other. Unfortunately for a number of reasons it didn’t work and I got worse. As a result I had to be redeployed in my work at the hospital where I worked as a domestic and I also had problems in my other job as a play worker. I was offered the chance of another operation, but I just felt I couldn’t go through it all again.

At the same time I didn’t want to become bitter and twisted, which, when you are in constant pain, can sometimes happen, as it can really affect your spirits. So I just kept praying and crying out to the Lord. “You are a God of mercy,” I told him. “I refuse to believe that you are not going to heal me. I know you can heal me. When are you going to do it?”

Then in June this year I went to the London Day of Renewal. At the end of the day we were all called forward as the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament was deployed. I was just singing and praising God at the top of my voice. I looked down and I noticed that my hands were shaking. I realised that God had changed something in my spirit and I felt different inside. It was only a few days later that I suddenly realised that the pain wasn’t there anymore and that I was standing for longer periods of time. At first I thought I was just having another good day, but eventually it dawned on me that this was not just a good day, but it was a permanent thing. The healing is still to some extent ongoing and I still do get the occasional twinge and stiffness but the difference in my quality of life now and before is amazing. I know God has worked a miracle in my life and healed my back and I just can’t thank and praise him enough.

Source: God New Magazine

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